Monday, Sep 11, 2017
The Westminster Symphonic Choir will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rossen Milanov. Performances are Saturday, September 16 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, September 17 at 4 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall on the campus of Princeton University. Soloists will be Westminster alumni Alexandra Batsios, soprano; Anne Marie Stanley, mezzo-soprano; Francis Williams, tenor and Thomas Lynch, baritone.
Hailed by Opera News as a “coloratura tour de force” Alexandra Batsios ’11 is garnering attention as a promising operatic talent. Her recent credits include the Queen of Shemakha in The Golden Cockerel) and Leonora in Il trovatore. As a studio artist with Sarasota Opera, she covered Adele in Die Fledermaus, made her debut as Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and covered Hélène in Verdi’s Jérusalem.She has also appeared at St. Petersburg Opera, Palm Beach Opera, New Opera NYC, and Opera North. She was a top prize winner in the 2015 Sullivan Foundation competition.
Anne Marie Stanley ‘14 received her bachelor’s degree from Westminster Choir College and earned her master’s degree in voice performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. At Rice, she performed the roles of Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Giulio Cesare in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto. She was recently a second-year apprentice singer at the Santa Fe Opera for their 2017 season. As first-prize winner of the Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition, she made her solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center. She also won first prize in the Franco-American Grand Concours Vocal Competition in Austin, Texas and the New York Lyric Opera Theatre National Vocal Competition.
Francis Williams ’16 is making his Princeton Symphony Orchestra debut. His past credits include Caius in Falstaff, Almeric in Iolanta, and Acis in Acis and Galatea. He has focused much time on Early Music, and works by Bach throughout the United States and internationally. Most recently, he sang the aria “Ach mein Sinn” in Bach’s St. John Passion under the direction of Dr. Andrew Megill at the Illinois Bach Academy.
Thomas Lynch ’16 has sung in a number of concerts and operas at Westminster Choir College, including Falstaff in Verdi’s Falstaff, Capellio in Bellini’s I Capulteti e I Montecchi, and Buonafede from Haydn’s Il mondo della luna. At the Spoleto Festival USA, he was the soloist in performances of Carissimi’s Jepthe and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. Mr. Lynch has recently debuted at the Caramoor Festival as the Gran Sacardote in Rossini’s Aureliano in Palmira.
To learn more about this performance, go to www.princetonsymphony.org.
NOTE: In conjunction with these performances, Joe Miller, conductor of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, will participate in a PSO Soundtracks program with Rossen Milanov at the Princeton Public Library on Wednesday, September 13 at 7 p.m. LEARN MORE.
Photograph: Westminster Symphonic Choir performing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the New York Philharmonic. May 2017 (Chris Lee)
